PESHAWAR, Jan 25: A senior military commander on Tuesday reiterated that his troops would stay in South Waziristan for as long as it was required to cleanse the area of foreign militants.
The commander debunked impression that peace agreements with tribes would lead to the withdrawal of troops from the semi-autonomous tribal region along the Afghan border.
"There will be no army pullout. My troops will stay in the region for as long as it is required. Our mission is to cleanse the area of foreign militants and there is no going back on this," Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, said while talking to Dawn.
The remarks come a day before the deadline given to two top tribal militants to surrender expires on midnight Wednesday. The commander, however, said that he would make readjustment and redeployment of his troops in Waziristan as and when it suited his overall military strategy.
"There may be some readjustment and redeployment of troops but that would be in accordance with my military strategy." There are about 35,000 regular and paramilitary troops in South Waziristan, roughly half of the total 70,000 troops in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.
Lt-Gen Hussain was optimistic that top militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud would agree to surrender. "There are some positive indications that Baitullah Mehsud may surrender to the authorities," he said.
He said the chief of tribal militants in the area had indicated to a jirga of ulema that he might drop his pre-condition that the authorities also extend amnesty to his comrade and wanted militant Abdullah Mehsud.
"Baitullah appears to have given up his instance that we extend the amnesty to Abdullah Mehsud as well." The corps commander insisted that Baitullah Mehsud would have to surrender to the authorities and sign an agreement renouncing militancy.
"He will have to surrender and become subservient to the authorities. He will have to sign an agreement seeking forgiveness for his past 'sins' and pledge not to repeat them again," Lt-Gen Hussain stressed.
A tribal source said that elders from the Shabikhel Mehsud tribe had been impressing upon Baitullah, who is the overall commander of militants in his tribal region, to give up insisting on extending the amnesty offer to Abdullah Mehsud.
Abdullah, 29, is wanted for masterminding the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in October. One of the Chinese was later killed during a rescue operation carried out by the elite Special Services Group commandos.
"Baitullah does not approve of the kidnapping of Chinese engineers and was particularly angry that Abdullah had lied to him by denying his involvement in the kidnapping," said the source.
"But Abdullah has now sought his help in the wake of mounting pressure to get him. Baitullah believes that ditching Abdullah at this juncture can cause a rift within the tribal militants' movement.
Abdullah commands his own group of fighters and a decision by Baitullah to take a solo flight and sign a peace and good conduct agreement with the government will invariably break the back of militants in the region," the source added.
For now, said the source, militants by and large had agreed to lie low and not to indulge in any activity that could renew hostilities with the army. "There is zero-visibility of the militants in our area these days.
But whether or not they will cross the border and begin attacking the American and Afghan forces on the other side will be seen after the snow starts melting and the weather becomes a little favourable," the source added. "In that case the army will have to launch a fresh operation and we will be back to square-one," the source remarked.
